


we're not brave, we're not strong, we're not soldiers

by dreamingaboutfandoms



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Light Angst, Maybe - Freeform, No Dialogue, No Fluff, Not Beta Read, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slight OOC, everyone has it, i mean theyre kids fighting in a space war theres gonna be some trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28023888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingaboutfandoms/pseuds/dreamingaboutfandoms
Summary: Shiro takes note of some of the ways the other four paladins aren't really coping with being child soldiers.---Takes place sometime when Shiro is still Shiro
Relationships: Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro
Kudos: 17





	we're not brave, we're not strong, we're not soldiers

**Author's Note:**

> So I was thinking of something to write and the song "Try" from the Lightning Thief Musical (where the title is from btw) was on and I had an epiphany. I mean, the paladins, save Shiro, are all children in a war and that's bound to fuck them up somehow. This was just a quick little character study I did to try and get into the groove of writing these characters. (I may or may not be currently writing a longer VLD crossover,,,,,,,) So if they are ooc sorry!

Shiro looked around the bridge at the other four paladins, at these children, because that’s what they are. Children forced to fight an intergalactic war they had nothing to do with. They should be in school getting detention for pulling some dumb prank on their teacher or stressing over midterms, not whether they would survive the next attack or not. They thought they were hiding the signs well, but Shiro knew better.

Hunk is even more skittish than he used to be, yelping and jumping at every loud noise, anything from someone accidentally dropping their fork to a lion other than Yellow moving without him realizing. He spends even more time than usual in the kitching, stress baking Shiro thinks, just doing something to keep his hands and mind busy. On Shiro’s nightly rounds when he can’t fall back asleep due to a nightmare, it’s fairly common to still see Hunk in the kitchen, just fiddling with ingredients and utensils.

Pidge spends even more time in her room, typing away at her computer. She’ll avoid the other as much as possible in the couple of days after a mission where no one was seriously hurt, kind of just darting around corners with her laptop tucked under her arm. She’ll spend most of that time in the lions’ docking areas, trying to figure out any possible way to improve them, so something like the lions losing power after falling out of the wormhole; or at least that’s what she said when Shiro questioned her that one time.

Keith doesn’t change too much to those who don’t know him that well, but to Shiro it was plain as day the difference in his little brother. Keith is even more angry than he ever used to be, now spending every possible moment in the training room, working himself past exhaustion. He rarely ever smiles anymore at Shiro’s dumb jokes. Not to mention, he’s even more distant than usual. In fact, the only time Shiro’s heard more than two sentences consecutively from the younger boy was during their mission a couple days ago where Keith and Lance were on a team together.

Speaking of Lance, Shiro was worried the most about him out of the four of them. While the others may not have had the healthiest coping mechanisms, at least they had one. Lance seems to think that no issue was the best issue. He acts like everything’s perfectly fine, that nothing is wrong. But Shiro can see the slight differences between the Lance that he met in the first couple weeks in space and the new Lance that showed up after he was essentially blown up when the Castleship was overtaken momentarily by Sendek and his crew. For one, even Shiro could see that Lance’s skin wasn’t as perfect as it once was, with pimples popping up and his skin being oily, and it seemed as though Lance either didn’t notice or care enough to do something about it. In addition, he seriously toned down on his flirting with the princess, barley throwing in a comment to her anymore. He and Keith hardly argue anymore as well.

Shiro was, and he’d never admit it because he was the leader the one they all looked up to for support, scared. These kids are already starting to act like Shiro did in his first couple months as a Galran prisoner. And, if they followed in his footsteps, it would only get worse. Which is why Shiro will do whatever it takes to keep their spirits up, he can’t let them turn into him, with the constant terror and flashbacks. These kids deserved better.


End file.
